Monitoring of free flaps and reconstruction for oral cancer

Clinical monitoring of free flaps is essential after reconstruction for cancer of the head and neck. We read with interest the paper by Nazir et al,1 who noted that one third of patients (34/106, 32%) reported disturbed sleep and almost all (99/101, 98%) were relieved when the monitoring changed from hourly to every four hours. They suggested that clinical teams should consider reducing the frequency of checks during the second night after operation. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few papers that have described patients' experience in relation to the monitoring of free flaps and it has also provided further insight into another aspect of treatment.

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